Processing: Images were captured Artemis Capture (as FITs).
Aligned/stacked and dark subtracted in Astroart with Sigma Combine and average
combine. Luminance
and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart.
Central Gradient was removed on all channels in Astroart. Channels were
co-registered in Astroart. The 8 minute IR block exposures were used for the
main luminance construction with level adjustments and curves to bring out
object features. LRGB combine was done in Photoshop. G2V
factors applied to color channels. Background noise reduction was applied in
PixInsight LE (SGBNR). Selective sharpening was applied
to galaxy features. Final Image size is approximately
1392x1040.

This image was guided; North is up. This galaxy,
NGC4631, is an edge on galaxy located in the constellation of Canes Venatici. It
is interacting gravitationally with a smaller nearby elliptical galaxy NGC4627 -
it can be seen just above NGC 4631. This galaxy is also commonly known as the
Whale Galaxy. NGC 4631 is about 30 million light years distant from Earth.
There is another dominant galaxy just off the frame toward the lower left.
- it can be seen in another image here. Horizontal FOV is
22'.